• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, June 26, 2014

The IAB has selected JWT North America Chief Creative Officer Jeff Benjamin as chair of the judging panel for the 10th anniversary IAB MIXX Awards. Of the selection, IAB EVP and CMO David Doty said: “We are honored that Jeff Benjamin, a highly accomplished creative pioneer, has agreed to lead the IAB MIXX Awards jury and raise the bar even higher in collaboration with a stellar gathering of cross-industry judges. His deep commitment to leveraging digital’s distinct capabilities for engaging and delighting consumers in interactive promises to result in an impressive showing of the best-of-the-best in this 10th anniversary year of the awards.” 

Miami-based 2C has hired Omar Acosta as creative director. Acosta comes to 2C with more than 10 years of experience as a design director, creative director and producer. For the past six of those years, he ran his own profitable boutique studio producing an array of award-winning design spots for such notable brands as MTV, NBC, Yahoo, Microsoft and Def Jam, among others. Acosta held previous creative posts at Microsoft Surface, Prologue Films, Yahoo and MTV Latin America. Of the hire, President and ECD Chris Sloan said: “We are ecstatic to bring aboard a design visionary of Omar’s caliber. He’s got that ideal blend of artistic vision, leadership and skill that will motivate an already superb team and help move us to the next level of design capability."

It seems Sir Martin Sorrell was everywhere during Cannes. Granting all kinds of interviews. In one interview with The Drum, he spoke about disruption and how technology is changing the way agencies work, saying: "We have seen agencies which have been very strong creatively in a traditional sense, making TV commercials, stumbling in the dark, trying to alter what they do given the rise of technology. Those agencies that were dominant 10 years ago are having great difficulty now because clients yawn when they get a 30-second TV ad, however beautifully produced or however stunning it is. The game has changed. If you are running a traditional agency, you have to change the nature of the people, you have to broaden the nature of the creativity and then the link to the media industry -- there is a debate over whether the message is more important than the medium or the medium over the message. Largely, that becomes less important if they are working closely.”

So have you heard of Teddy Goalsevelt? Well, Teddy is a character invented by WPP Cavalry Associate Creative Director Mike D'Amico. D'Amico, dressed like Teddy Roosevelt, went to Brazil to watch the first round of the World Cup. Dressed in character, the cameras found him in the crowd many times garnering him much popularity. He's still in Brazil and the agency is trying to raise funds to keep him there and continue supporting the America team. The agency posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe, writing, "We here at Cavalry, the advertising agency where Teddy (Mike D'Amico) works, see him as the team's mascot now. And we don't think we're alone." The agency has promised to match every dollar donated up to $2,500. And the whole thing has been kicked up to a frantic pitch on Twitter with the hashtag #TeddyinBrazil.

Correction: Due to an editing error, the wrong by-line was inserted in the Thursday edition of Mediapsssst. Richard Whitman wrote the column.